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Welcome to the 111th Critical Care Reviews Newsletter, bringing you the best critical care research published in the past week, plus a wide range of free full text review articles, guidelines, editorials, commentaries and more from over 300 clinical and scientific journals.

This week's research studies include randomized controlled trials on parenteral fish oil, coupled plasma filtration adsorption, plus fluids in both cardiac and colorectal surgery; meta analyses address mannitol for the prevention of acute kidney injury, risk of infection with therapeutic hypothermia and macrolide therapy for community-acquired pneumonia; observational studies focus on the prognostic significance of right ventricular dysfunction in pulmonary embolism, hyperoxia in stroke patients and the effects of compliance with the Trauma Brain Foundation guidance on intracranial pressure monitoring. Links are provided to another 13 studies of interest.

There is a single report from the American Department of Defense Neurotrauma Pharmacology Working Group on pharmacotherapy for traumatic brain injury, while editorials discuss ventilator-associated events and airway management. Amongst the clinical review articles are papers on ICP management, sedation, sleep, sonographic evaluation of volume responsiveness, acute coronary syndrome, a critical care cardiology update, PEEP, lung ultrasound, acute-on-chronic liver failure, bleeding on dabigatran, and penetrating neck trauma. One basic science review article looks at statistical methods to deal with missing data. If you prefer a break from all the serious reading, try the general interest article, providing a fascinating discussion on the possible catecholamine cardiomyopathy suffered by Neil Armstrong whilst in space and on the moon.

The long wait is almost over and it's now just days to the Critical Care Reviews Meeting 2014. Late registration is still available online. This year the meeting will be run in association with the Northern Ireland Intensive Care Society. Further details, the meeting programme, and registration can be accessed via these links. If you can't make it, follow #CCRMeeting for live updates throughout the day.

SMACC GOLD March 19-21st, 2014, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

This major international conference, also in it's second year, is a must for those active in the online critical care community. Webmasters of the most prominent critical care websites and blogs will descend on the beautiful Gold Coast for an amazing get together of like-minded people in a totally different style of conference.

Evidence-Based Medicine Workshop at SMACCgold

Several workshops are still available for registration, including the Evidence-Based Medicine workshop I'll be helping run along with Simon Carley, Professor of Emergency Medicine in Manchester, and Rick Body, a fellow EM consultant in Manchester. They run the superb evidence-based medicine websites St. Emelyn's and BestBets and are experienced researchers with a vast publication portfolio. Sessions include Practical Critical Appraisal, EBM in Clinical Practice, Demystifying Statistics, and Making Journal Club Work. Delegates will learn the fundamentals of EBM, and immediately put it to effect, producing a critical appraisal BestBet which will be published. If you're coming to SMACCgold, don't miss this opportunity to improve a critical skill - the ability to appraise the literature, strengthen your decision making and enhance the care you provide to your patients.

Geurts and colleagues review 23 randomized controlled trials (n=2,820) of therapeutic hypothermia (n=1,398) induced in adults for any indication, and which reported the prevalence of infection, and found:

Jiménez et al undertook a prospective, multicentre observational cohort study assessing the prognostic value of right ventricular dysfunction (ratio of the RV to the LV short axis diameter > 0.9 assessed by multidetector CT) in 848 normotensive patients with pulmonary embolism, and found